2002 World SuperBike Championship - Round 5 - Monza - Qualifying 1

Chris Walker timed his qualifying run to perfection at Monza this afternoon, jumping from fourteenth to seventh place on the provisional grid in the final two minutes of the session.

Not having raced at Monza before, and with this morning's free practice being held in damp conditions, the opening qualifying session was the first opportunity for Walker to learn his way around the circuit in the dry. As the session progressed, so did Walker's times, with the 30-year-old Fuchs Kawasaki rider eventually ending the day as the fastest four-cylinder qualifier.

'Considering the fact that this is my first time at Monza, I'm pretty happy with the way things have gone today,' said Walker. 'There are still improvements to be had though, as I'm losing a lot of time through the fast chicane at the back of the circuit, where I'm having a few problems getting the bike stopped and turned. I'm probably losing half a second through the chicane and then another half a second down the following straight, because I'm not coming out of the turn as fast as I should be. Obviously, this is an area we will be looking to improve upon tomorrow. Everywhere else the bike feels fine and, overall, I've had a pretty good day.'

Like his team-mate, the opening qualifying session was also Eric Bostrom's first time on a dry Monza circuit. After qualifying tenth fastest, higher up the provisional grid than a number of the more experienced WSB regulars, the Californian declared himself impressed with the speed of the circuit.

'This circuit takes balls,' commented Bostrom. 'It's real fast but, because of the speed, you have to be real accurate with your braking markers. My main problem today was the amount of pressure I put on myself. After this morning's wet session I really wanted to go well this afternoon and the end result was that I was trying just a little too hard, not letting it come naturally and not riding consistently from lap to lap. Overall I'm happy, but we know we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow.'

Andrew Pitt claimed a provisional second row start at Monza this afternoon, after finishing the opening qualifying session fifth fastest aboard his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-6R.

Overnight rain meant that this morning's free practice session was held in damp conditions; with both Fuchs Kawasaki riders running on heavily cut full wet tyres. By the time the riders took to the circuit for the opening qualifying session this afternoon the track had mostly dried out, with just the odd damp patch to catch out the unwary.

'It took me a while to get into a rhythm this afternoon and it wasn't really until the end of the session that I felt comfortable about upping the pace,' said Pitt. 'We also ran the bike a little soft in the first half of the session, after working on finding a wet setting this morning. We stiffened it up slightly mid-session, but I'm still not 100% happy with the way it felt out there. We need to get a little more weight over the rear to make it more stable on the brakes, but this is something we can sort out overnight, ready for the important second qualifying session tomorrow.'

James Ellison rates Monza as his all time favourite circuit and that certainly showed during a wet free practice period this morning. The 20-year-old Fuchs Kawasaki rider topped the timesheet for most of the 45-minute session, before a gear selection problem caused him to crash out unhurt. Using his spare bike for this afternoon's qualifying period, Ellison ended up 18th quickest, but confident of improvement tomorrow.

'This morning's free practice went really well; I was getting quicker and quicker until I crashed with just ten minutes left to go,' said Ellison. 'This afternoon we only had the one bike to work with, as my number one bike was still being rebuilt after the crash, and that cost us a bit of dry set-up time. It's not easy to make changes when you've only got 45 minutes available to you, but I'm confident that, whatever the weather has in store for us tomorrow, we'll be in good shape settings wise for the final qualifying session.'

Friday at Monza - WSBK Qualifying 1 - Honda Report - Kawasaki Report - GSE Ducati - Infostrada Ducati - Aprilia -
WSS Qualifying 1, Monza